shine like stars, dream like clouds
by chasingafterstarlight
Summary: They're the NextGeneration and they're going to leave their marks on the world. Twelve NextGen pairings in 1000 words each. Varied pairings, outlining the beautiful people known as the NextGen. /MollyLy, LucyLor, TeddyVic, RoseScor, varied others.


**shine like stars, dream like clouds**

_The NextGen and my OTPS in 1000 words each (and one line from a song)_

I. _TeddyVictoire  
><em>_she was hot as july, sweet as sunshine  
><em>**- out of summertime, scotty mccreery**

Victoire Weasley is determined to start things off right.

She's the oldest of the Weasleys, and if she doesn't have a decent love life, then no one will. She doesn't want to curse them all to a horrible love life, now does she?

But the thing is, Victoire Weasley is a princess, and she's looking only for a prince to come and save her. In her imagination, said prince is named Teddy Lupin.

Teddy's been her best friend for ages and ages. With his shining hazel eyes and his dark brown curls, he's the picture of perfection to Victoire. If she were asked to describe her perfect boy, she would describe Teddy.

But she's always been just _little Vicky_ to him, the baby that he helped to 'grow up' (though he's only two years older than her), the cute little Hufflepuff, the first Weasley for generations _not_ to be a Gryffindor.

So he doesn't really notice her that way until his seventh year, when they're both remarkably more mature and both ready to try something like a relationship. Before that, it obviously would've ended in disaster.

But it's that year that they decide to announce that they're having a ball at Hogwarts. A _ball_, as in a dance.

Victoire, of course, is impossibly excited, and all the more so when Teddy approaches her with a smile. "Vicky? I have a question to ask you." His cheeks burn, even though he's a seventh year and he should act older than he's acting right then.

"Yes, Teddy?" she asks, resisting the urge to laugh.

"I was just wondering if- well, y'know, do you want to go to the dance with me?" He blurts, his attempts at subtlety failing.

"Of course I will," she grins at him, her face lighting up. "I'll see you there, then?"

"Course," he replies, face alight with relief.

On that day, she puts on the pretty petal pink dress that she's always dreamed that she would wear, and fashions her hair up into a bun. Once she gets there, to her dismay, she sees Teddy dancing with another _girl._ Her first instinct is to run away, to just leave the ball then and there, but she walks in anyway, blushing a little bit at the attention she receives from everyone but Teddy.

Joseph Macmillan asks her to dance. As they dance, she watches Teddy and the girl that she doesn't recognize the whole time over his shoulder. Later, she feels guilty, but honestly, Teddy is her date, not Joseph.

Once the song _finally_ ends and a new one begins, Joseph goes off and Teddy comes over to her at last. With a bit of a frown, he tells her, "Sorry about that. That's a good friend of mine and her date sort of stood her up so I offered her a dance. But anyway," he beams proudly, "I brought you a flower. A sunflower, your favourite."

"Your memory is flawless, Teddy Lupin," she whispers, but she blushes because she only likes sunflowers in the first place because of him. Her first memories are of playing in the sunflower fields with him at his grandmother's house.

"I am smart, aren't I?" he raises a eyebrow and wraps an arm around her. "Care to dance, Miss Weasley?"

"If I didn't want to dance," she retorts jokingly, "would I have come to this dance?" But she laughs anyways,and lets him lead her to the dance floor.

As they dance, she asks him, "Have you ever been in love, Teddy?"

"How can I know what love is? I'm only seventeen," Teddy responds in that thickheaded Gryffindor way of his.

"Love doesn't have an age," Victoire resists the urge to stick her tongue out at him or something equally as childish. Instead, she wraps her arms around him. "Teddy, I don't want to let this go. What am I going to do next year without my best friend?"

"Find another?" he suggests, but it's in a joking way. He pulls her closer with a smile. "I know what you mean. I don't know what I'm going to do without my favourite little Hufflepuff."

The song notes are coming to a close, and she wishes she could stop time, but before she knows it, the song has ended, and Teddy goes off to dance with some other close girl friend of his, so she just watches from the background, feeling forgotten.

Halfway through, he seems to notice that she's not really doing anything. Walking over to her, he asks in an amused tone, "Victoire, I thought the point of coming to a dance was to _dance_?"

Nodding, she just shrugs. "I don't feel much like dancing."

Sitting down beside her, he asks softly, "Something wrong, Vicky?"

"Of course not," she replies, getting quickly to her feet. "Care to dance or something like that?"

"Or something like that," he repeats, bemused, but he offers her a hand anyway and they walk to the dance floor, where he pulls her close to her again. She tries to pretend that her heart rate doesn't increase or anything like that, instead, she puts her head against his chest, because really, this is her last chance to imply how she feels.

"Are you excited for being out of school? You know, all that free time- you can see whoever you want, including girls," she mutters offhandedly.

He laughs. "Too bad I have my eyes on one girl in particular."

Then his lips are on hers, and finally, she feels like a princess in the end of a fairytale. She's a princess, and now she has her prince.

He pulls away and whispers something like, "I think I might love you, little Hufflepuff."

She giggles, smacks his shoulder, and tells him, "Well, I might love you too, you big old Gryffindor."

As he kisses her again, she thinks that finally, it's the beginning of her fairytale. And in her humble opinion, she's started her generation off just fine.

II. _FredAshlyn_

I knew I wouldn't forget you, and so I went and let you blow my mind  
>- <strong>hey, soul sister, train<strong>

Fred Weasley _never _gets pranked.

Yes, he is often the pranker. He pranks everyone he finds, most of the time, because according to his father, it makes him more like his _uncle _and he's always wanted to be like his uncle to fill the empty void in his family. But that's the thing that sets him apart from his uncle- he's intensely protective and always bending to help others, no matter the circumstances.

So when he sees a girl sprawled on the floor, he doesn't think twice. Instead, he runs over and offers her a hand. "Need a hand up?"

"Yeah," the girl replies slowly. "I'm Ashlyn Wood. And you are?"

"Fred Weasley," he grins at her, pulling her to her feet. "The second."

Nodding, the girl clutches her head. "Oh, I must've fallen hard. I- I feel sort of dizzy."

He catches her arm to keep her from falling, and she clings to his robes before regaining her balance. "Oh. Thanks for, um, helping me up and stopping me from falling." She rubs her forehead again. "Sorry to be such an inconvenience, anyway. I- I think I'd better get to class, I'll see you later, yes?'

"No problem, I bet I'll see you," Fred replies a bit too eagerly, because the girl is sort of pretty.

She walks off with a bit of a wave, but it's not until later that Fred realises what she's done.

He's sitting in the middle of Potions, listening to their idiot of a Slytherin teacher blabber his head off about safety procedures (which bore him, he'd much rather put a bunch of things into a cauldron and watch them blow up), when suddenly, there's a rustling noise in his backpack.

Glancing down, he stares at his bag, when suddenly, fireworks explode from it, filling the room with bright and brilliant colours. He grabs it, but to no avail- the fireworks are already exploding everywhere. Slumping down in his seat, he hopes that Professor Avery won't notice- the guy hates him enough already.

Suddenly, it hits him with a start what must have happened. It had to be that girl he'd run into-

"Ashlyn!" he exclaims suddenly, cursing under his breath. How had the girl gotten him? She'd used his own weakness for helping people against him.

"Fred Weasley," Professor Avery booms. "_Detention_. Again. For the fifteenth time this year."

Fred just slumps down in his seat, ignoring the glares that Roxanne sends his way.

After class, his twin sister pulls him aside. "Fred! Honestly! What sort of prank was that?"

All of the people from his class giggle and point at him as they walk out.

"I didn't pull a prank," Fred insists, turning red. "Ashlyn Wood pranked _me_."

"Oh, come on," Roxanne rolls her eyes. "Don't give me any of that. Ashlyn Wood is a _fifth _year and quite cute, at that. She looks so young."

"Looks can be deceiving," Fred protests, but Roxanne is already walking away.

He finds her again in the common room, looking innocent with her head buried in a textbook. Sitting down beside her, he watches as she cowers away before saying, "Nice prank."

"What?" she replies, her blue eyes widening.

"I said, nice prank," he repeats. "Care for a prank war?"

Ashlyn's eyes sparkle. "You're on."

He gets her first- replacing her wand with a fake one that spurts bubbles during Transfiguration (he returns her real wand afterwards, though).

She gets him back, itching cream in his shampoo. He toilet papers her dorm room, so she gets him back by charming his textbook to sing Muggle opera music whenever he opens it. He responds with an exploding cake in the middle of the Great Hall, squirting frosting all over her face. When he inquires later, she says she didn't mind because she got to lick off all of the frosting.

It ultimately ends when they declare a truce and are both forced to serve detention.

"No talking," the Transfiguration Professor says with a stern glare before walking out the door. Both Fred and Ashlyn know that she's a joke, so they begin to talk once they're sure that she's out of the room.

"Nice pranks," Ashlyn congratulates him.

"You know," Fred replies, his eyes sparkling, "We should totally team up to prank the whole entire school."

"That would be really funny," Ashlyn agrees, rubbing her hands together. "We should do it in the Great Hall, you know, as you figured out, that's where the most people are likely to be. Exploding cake's already been used…"

"As have fireworks," he interjects with an amused smile.

Shaking her head at him, she continues. "Well, there's probably a thousand other options. There's always something to do with water, but that might aggravate too far many people or cause them to catch hypothermia. Oh well. There's always the possibility of someone being allergic to food, so that's out of the question, too. Of course, we could-"

But she's cut off by the Divination Professor returning to the classroom. "Do I hear _talking_?"

Keeping their mouths shut, Ashlyn and Fred shake their heads in unison, doing a zipping sign over their lips together.

"Let's keep it that way," Professor Jasons hisses, stalking out of the classroom with her typical angry expression on her face.

Once they're sure she's gone, Ashlyn and Fred turn to each other and burst out laughing so hard they almost fall onto the floor. It's there that Fred realise how very close her face is to his, and how Roxanne was right- she's very pretty. So, being the impulsive Gryffindor that he is (and she is too), he leans in and kisses he, and it feels so very _right_.

"Plot later?" he whispers against her lips, quite enjoying their current activity.

"Of course," she whispers back before kissing him again. "We've got plenty of time."

They get many more detentions from Professor Jacobs when she comes back to find them full-out snogging, but it's _so _worth it.

III. _RoxanneBenjamin_

_and I think you would agree- the best thing is that it's happening to you & me_  
><strong>- the best thing, relient k<strong>

Roxanne and Benjamin have always been the best of friends, ever since first year, when she was a cute little kid looking for a place to sit and he was the nice boy that offered to share a compartment with her. After that, the two were pretty much inseparable, when they were Sorted into Gryffindor together, when pretty much everything happened- first loves, first heartbreaks. They were always there for each other.

Fifth year's the year that everything changes.

They're both made Prefects, which excites them, obviously, and especially since they can be Prefects together. But it's obvious that their styles differ from the first day.

"Look at this face," Roxanne pleads, squeezing the child's cheeks- much to the first year's displeasure. "How can you resist it? I'm sure she didn't know that she wasn't supposed to be out after hours."

Benjamin just laughs. "Roxy, she's a first year Slytherin, not an animal, and she's out after curfew. We have to punish her."

"All right, but not too harshly, please?" Roxanne begs, giving Benjamin her biggest pout.

The little girl rolls her eyes. "You guys are so oblivious- just get together, already."

Both pairs of eyes flash to the first year, who takes her discipline form from Benjamin, rolls her eyes, and skips off. Their eyes meet before they look down, blushing.

Trying to break the sudden awkwardness, Roxanne coughs before laughing. "That was interesting. But it's obvious that we work well together, yes? You deal out the harsh punishments and I convince you to let up on them."

"You can't treat children like little puppies, Roxanne," Benjamin retorts. "She's a human, she knows better than to come into the corridors after all-"

Then their banter resumes like so, and it's as if nothing ever happened in the corridor that day. But not really, because neither of them really forget.

Roxanne doesn't, at least. She starts to see Benjamin in a different light. Instead of seeing the little boy that she's been with since first year, she starts to see a handsome boy, with skin like sweet caramel and dark brown, almost black hair that almost falls into his eyes. She starts to notice how cute he looks when he smiles, and she tries not to notice, because they're best friends and this will just make things worse.

It only worsens when he starts to say things like "my beautiful best friend" and shoot her these smiles that make her melt.

Then one day, he asks her out for ice cream, and she raises an eyebrow. "Ice cream as in the ice cream from the school kitchen, Ben? Cause that stuff tastes like vomit!"

He rolls his eyes but interrupts her before she can go into the ranting mode that he knows all too well. "Cool your jets, Roxy. I actually meant ice cream from the new ice cream parlour at Hogsmeade- you know, Miss Creamy's- but if you'd rather we go to the kitchens, that would be a lot less trouble for me, so—"

"No," she cuts him off, staring at him curiously. "You're suggesting we _sneak out_? Who are you and what have you done with my best friend?"

He laughs at her reaction before stating, "I'm right here, my dear."

She tries not to blush at that, instead choosing to ask, "How do you suggest we sneak out?"

He holds up the Marauder's Map. "Your brother gave it to me, nicked it off James. He said something about how he wanted you to be happy."

"Oh, that brother of mine," Roxanne rolls her eyes. "But I say we do it."

So the next afternoon, once classes are over, they meet up and sneak out the secret passageway to Hogsmeade indicated on the Marauder's Map. It's a bit creaky, and they bite their lips to keep from cracking up and getting busted, but once they end up on the other side, in Hogsmeade and completely free, they both laugh so hard that they nearly get the hiccups.

"Be quiet," Benjamin hisses sternly. "We've got to get to the ice cream parlour unnoticed."

Roxanne dramatically sucks in a breath, and Benjamin resists the urge to laugh as he leads her to the ice cream parlour. Once they get there, though, they greet the owner normally and order a couple of chocolate ice creams, both of their favourite.

Dipping her spoon into her bowl of ice cream, Roxanne grins at him. "Ben, this is great. Thanks for setting this up."

"Only the best for my _best_ friend," he replies with a small blush, staring at the table.

"Want to look at me when you tell me that?" Roxanne asks jokingly.

"Only the best for my best friend," Benjamin repeats, looking up at her, but then his eyes widen and he drops the cup, all thoughts of ice cream abandoned, as he leans forward and kisses her gently.

She kisses back, because she's wanted this, she really has, though she's quite confused as to why it's happening now.

Pulling back, Benjamin breathes out, "Sorry, you just had some ice cream on your lips."

"So you kissed me because I had ice cream on my lips?" Roxanne rolls her eyes. "Like I'm going to believe that, Benjamin Williams."

"Well," he retorts with a grin, "You should." But he doesn't follow through, as he leans in and kisses her again like she's never been kissed before.

"Well, guess we're not best friends anymore then?" Roxanne asks with a bit of a pout.

"No," he replies, "we're definitely still best friends. We're just best friends taken to a whole new level, you know? Best friends that are in a relationship and might, well, snog a little. That is, if you want to."

"Are you insane?" Roxanne demands, laughing a little bit more. "Of course I want to."

They lean in again for a kiss, but the lady ends up chasing them out. Laughing loudly, they run all the way back to the passageway.

IV. _LouisNatalie_

_lost and insecure, you found me, you found me_  
><strong>- you found me, the fray<strong>

**Reason** is that one thing that's holding them apart.

Really, Louis thinks as he stares at her from across the Great Hall, there's no logical reason that he should like her. She's just another Ravenclaw, and sure, she _is_ pretty, but as mean as it might sound, she's not _the prettiest_. But there's something about her that intrigues him like no one else ever has.

It's the reason that, one day in the Great Hall, he crosses over and plops down next to her.

"Louis," she hisses to him, not looking incredibly happy, "what are you _doing_ here?"

"I wanted to sit with you," he replies, shrugging obliviously. It doesn't matter that he's a Hufflepuff and she's a Ravenclaw, at least, it doesn't to him. The look in her brown eyes tells him otherwise.

"Ooh, look, Nat's got a boyfriend," comes a teasing voice from beside her, and Louis rotates to see the idiot of the year, Jacob Boot. Lorcan Scamander leans over and smacks him on the shoulder, giving him a warning glare, but Natalie turns red nonetheless.

"See what will happen?" she whispers, rolling her eyes. "Ravenclaws always assume the worst."

Louis just nods, glancing down the table. "Well, we don't have to sit here, do we?"

"Correction," she replies, raising an eyebrow. "_You_ don't have to. We Ravenclaws don't go against the status quo. That's much more of a Gryffindor- or apparently a Hufflepuff- sort of thing."

In the end, he ends up sitting at the Slytherin table beside his little sister, gazing longingly at Natalie. Dominique smacks his arm. "Soldier up, idiot. You look like a puppy dog that's begging for attention. Sit like that and you're going to get the wrong sort of attention."

He rolls his eyes at his sister, but sits up normally anyway, because with Dominique you do what she says or you end up hurting for the next couple of days.

He waits a couple of days before approaching Natalie again, and he ensures that Jacob Boot is nowhere around. Then he walks up with a big smile and greets her, "Hi, Natalie."

"What reason have you to be talking to me?" she asks, turning around and looking him fiercely in the eyes.

"No reason," he replies, glancing down at the ground. "I just thought you were pretty and therefore, I wanted to talk to you."

"_Pretty_?" she repeats, obviously amused. "You think that I'm pretty, Louis?"

"Well, yeah," he replies lamely before grinning. "And I'm pretty sexy too, you know, so together we could be pretty amazing, don't you think?"

Her eyes widen exponentially at the word sexy before she bursts into laughter, staring at him. "You consider yourself to be sexy, do you?"

"Yes," he replies, "as a matter of fact, I do."

Staring at him, she just shakes her head before informing him, "You entertain me to no end, Louis Weasley." Then, with a flip of her long ponytail, she walks away and he stares after her, mouth agape. It's the first time that a girl hasn't fallen for his charms.

After that, he decides that he's going to try every trick in the bag to get her to fall for him. He buys her flowers, to which she says that she doesn't quite like the smell of them (or the look of them, for that matter). He buys her chocolate and she asks if he's trying to make her _fat_ (but he sees her eating them later anyway). He tells her that she's one of the prettiest girls he's ever seen (which, at this point in time, is completely true). He's doing _everything_ that he can, but the girl is unbreakable, and controlled completely by her own reasoning skills.

Which, he deduces, is about when he needs to start being reasonable.

So, he sits down across from her in a coffee shop, the most reasonable of places. Sliding a hot tea over to her, he grins and says, "To stimulate the mind."

"If anyone's mind needs stimulating, it's yours," she retorts, but she drinks it anyway. With a sigh, she asks, "Now, why have you brought me here? It's obviously just not to drink _tea_." The look on her face implies that she wouldn't believe that in a thousand years.

He decides that he might as well put it into simple terms. "Look, Natalie, it's obvious that you find me attractive, and I find you quite pretty too. Now, are we going to stop pretending for once?"

"Who says I'm pretending?" she rolls her eyes as she stares at him. "Look, _Louis_, I have no desire in the least to be with you, no matter how many times you may _delude_ yourself that I like you, which is completely unreasonable and against everything I stand for-"

But he cuts her off by leaning in and kissing her (and he thinks that maybe James or Fred has negatively influenced him because this is _not_ his normal kind of thing, being _brave_ and _daring_).

She kisses him back for one glorious moment before she pulls away, staring at him with wide brown eyes and a half-open mouth before asking, "Are you absolutely insane, Louis?"

"Possibly," he runs a hand through his tousled blonde hair. "I mean, look at who I am related to-"

But he doesn't even get the chance to finish his sentence before he's cut off by her kissing him again, with her wide brown eyes reflecting his face. Staring at him as she pulls away slowly, she tells him, "Louis, I… I don't know… I'm sorry."

"Why are you sorry?" he asks her, laughing bitterly. "I'm the one who kissed you in the first place…"

"But then I continued it," She runs a hand through her hair, "which was very wrong…"

He kisses her again, pulling away to stare breathlessly at her. "Does this feel wrong to you?"

"No," she admits, planting a soft kiss on his lips, and maybe that's all the reason they need.

V. _JamesKatelyn_

_the memories that you select- you keep the bad but the good you just forget  
><em>- **which to bury, us or the hatchet?, relient k**

James Potter does _not_ like Slytherins.

Slytherins were the ones that fought against his famous, strong, heroic father in the war, and therefore, in his opinion, they must all be Death Eaters in training, or at least related to a Death Eater. He's not appreciative of the fact that his own _brother _and his own _sister _are both Slytherins, but then again, they both got the bad blood- at least that's what James claims.

But of course, that's before a certain girl enters his life.

He's sitting at the Gryffindor table, minding his own business, when suddenly a giggling girl plops down across from him, all long red hair and sparkly green eyes. Tossing him a scowl, she says quickly, "Potter. You'll do. Hide me from your little playboy cousin Louis, please? He seems to think that Slytherins are his type because he's on a break from his 'relationship' with Natalie."

"Do I even know you?" James raises an eyebrow at her.

"Oh, polite today, aren't we?" she glares, her piercing green eyes seeming to bear down into his heart. "It's Katelyn, Katelyn Weller. And I don't like you already, Potter. Your bias isn't appreciated in the least. Just because I'm a Slytherin doesn't mean I don't have _feelings,_ you know."

"Well," James rolls his eyes, "most of you Slytherins think it's your duty to hate us Gryffindors. I was only playing the role well."

"Did you see me being rude to you?" she asks in her perfectly silky voice. "No. So you have no reason for you to be rude to me. Honestly, I was even giving you a _chance_- and normally I hate people when I first speak to them. You should consider yourself_lucky_."

Whipping his wand out of his pocket, he glares at her. "Look, Weller, there's no reason for you to get all testy just because I dislike you, I don't like _any_ Slytherins-"

"Which just shows what a pigheaded, biased idiot you are," she sings, pulling her wand slowly out from behind her back. "Honestly, Potter. Your brother Albus is a Slytherin, and so is Lily. They are both perfectly respectable people, both _hurt_ because their brother shuns them just because of what house they were sorted into. Do you know what sort of an impact that has on people?"

He grits his teeth. "Don't act like you know _anything_ about my family."

"Well, you're all war heroes," Katelyn replies, putting a green-painted nail up to her mouth. "Aren't you all the same? Just like all_Slytherins_ are the same?"

"Don't pull that card on me," he spits before deciding that he's not going to play these games with her. Turning, he walks out of the Great Hall, brandishing his wand one last time before shoving it back in his pocket.

After that, their relationship is tense, because he knows that she's the only person who can prove him wrong and the only Slytherin that he thinks could even _compete_ with him. Every time he gets ready to make a remark about Slytherins, she pops into his head for some reason. She messes up his way of thinking and his _brain_, but he doesn't get it. Isn't she just another annoying Slytherin?

One day, he grabs her by her (_Slytherin_) tie, and while it might look like he has intentions to snog her, his intentions are completely the opposite. Glaring into her eyes, he asks in a harsh tone, "_Why_ do you feel the need to mess with my mind?"

"Well," she replies in a sing-song voice, "if it was functioning all right before, then you wouldn't be messed up now."

"Are you trying to say that my brain is messed up?" James replies, eyes narrowing as he glares at her.

She steps a bit closer in that tempting way of hers. "Look, Potter, I'm not trying to mess with your head, that's all you. If you think I'm messing with your head… well, you're an idiot."

Pointing his wand at her chest, he scowls at her. "Do you want me to curse you into oblivion?"

"You're not strong enough, Potter, therefore, I'm _not_ scared of you," she replies defiantly. "Put away your stereotypes for a bit, won't you? They're the only thing that's stopping you from getting to know me."

"Wait, what?" he peers at her curiously. "You _want_ to get to know me?"

"Well," she winks at him a bit suggestively, "you _are_ sort of sexy in that weird way of yours."

"Oh, this is too much," he mutters, but then he follows it up with, "Want to go to Hogsmeade with me, then? Just so that I can prove you _wrong?_"

"I'll be there," she replies in her determined tone, "and I'll be early."

Much to his dismay, she ends up being thirty minutes late. But he meets her there with a bit of a smirk, and they talk, and _laugh_, and he wonders- for a moment- why he thought that Slytherins were so bad in the first place. Then she'll make a comment and just like that, he'll remember with a roll of his eyes.

She drags him to the Three Broomsticks and forces him to take his first shot of alcohol. At first, he just stares at it as if it's some kind of poison, and she rolls her eyes.

"You drink it, Potter, like this," she informs him, dumping the whole thing into her mouth.

Nervously, he gulps, but he dumps it into his mouth anyway. The bitter taste stings at his mouth and throat, destroying everything in there (or so he thinks). She just laughs at him.

"You know, Potter, you _are_ sort of an idiot," she informs him, cocking her head so that her red hair falls into her face. "But a lovable idiot, at that."

He likes to think that it's his love of rebellion that makes him lean in and kiss her.

But he knows that it might just be something more than that.

VI._ScorpiusDominiqueDawson_

you make breaking hearts look so easy (seems like you've done this before) **  
><strong>**-breaking, anberlin**

Dominique hadn't ever meant to play them. It had just turned out that way.

Really, she'd guessed that they were playing her too. Scorpius was sleeping with more girls than any guy in the school and Dawson was just… Dawson. He could get any girl in the school, and he knew it too.

But she strung them and their hearts along, because she's Dominique and she can do that.

It's just a flutter of her eyelashes, a beam of all her perfectly aligned teeth, and boys fall like dominoes in front of her.

They're both in her year, both in her house, so she knows them both rather well. So she knows that when Scorpius is snogging her, he's imagining Rose in her place, and no way does she want to be some second place consolation prize. So when she kisses him one day, she knots her fingers in his hair and asks sweetly, "Scorpius, do you ever think about me?"

"Of course I think about you, Dominique," He asks, staring at the ground and not meeting her eyes.

"The way you think about Rose?" Dominique asks with a frown.

His head snaps up and he gives her a long, hard glare. "You don't know how I feel about Rose. Don't even try to pretend-"

"Save it," she says, putting her hands on her hips.

He glances up with a sigh. "I have to go now, Dom. I'll make it up to you."

"Sure you will," she calls as he walks out of the closet, leaving her there to deal by herself.

She considers dumping Scorpius at times (dumping meaning cutting off any ties with him, as technically, they're not going out), because she's a _Veela _Weasley and, even better than that, the only Slytherin Weasley, so surely, she's something special.

But other than Scorpius, she has Dawson Nott.

On the other side, he's just this player who thinks he owns the world. Judging from what she can see, he doesn't have a soft side, which makes him even less appealing. But he's not in love with _another girl_ so that's the bright side of being with Dawson.

He's also _quite_ the snogger and he wants nothing to do with any sort of relationship, which is good for her, because Dominique Weasley doesn't do relationships.

When he kisses her, she pulls away and looks at him. "Dawson, do you ever think about me?"

"Am I supposed to?" he asks in his voice, soft as velvet, rough as sand. "This is a no-strings attached thing, right? Otherwise, I'm out."

"Of course it is," her voice is hurried as she pulls Dawson in for another kiss, because she's _Dominique Weasley_ and she's not satisfied with only one boy, is she? It might make her selfish, but she doesn't care- her standard of selfish is different than anyone else's.

Her standard of selfish is her sister, Victoire, taking Dominique's first love from under her nose at such a young age. In Dominique's eyes, this is the definition of selfish.

Even now that she's basically doing the same thing to Rose, but she doesn't really consider that.

At the restaurant that Scorpius takes Dominique to in order to 'make it up to her', he leans over and says to her, "It looks like we're on a date." It's not a question, but a statement.

Dominique just shrugs back at him. "Who cares what other people think, Scorpius? If they're stupid enough to think that we have a relationship or something, then so be it. They're just idiots and that's all."

Scorpius seems to relax a little bit, much to her relief. He grins over at her instead. "So what are you going to order?"

Their 'not-date' relaxes a bit into small talk and little conversations. The waitress also seems to assume that they're a couple, but Dominique politely manages to inform her that they're 'just friends' here because she did him a favour. More like _friends with benefits_ and _personal favours_.

That's about when Dawson walks up. "Dominique. Malfoy. I certainly didn't expect to see you two, especially not the two of you on a_date_." His hurt, accusing glare pierces Dominique, and she wonders what happened to _no strings attached_.

"We're not on a date, idiot," Dominique sneers back, but it's too late- he walks over and sits at a table by himself.

From that point on, the 'not-date' continues on awkwardly, as she guesses it should after your two snog-buddies meet each other while you're on a 'not-date' with one of them. But her 'not-date' is ruined anyway when Rose comes waltzing in and Scorpius spots her. Jumping up, he hisses quickly, "I was never here, Dom. I'm sorry."

Then he disappears and a lost, lonely Dominique is forced to go sit down across from Dawson. With a sigh, she tells him, "I got ditched by my not-date."

"Well, Scorpius is an idiot anyway," he replies, then with a teasing smile continues, "If you want, I could be your _Nott_-date."

"You're a corny idiot," she informs him, but a tiny smile tugs at the edges of her mouth.

"Is that a yes?" his green eyes light up as he looks at her.

"If you want it to be," she grins at him, leaning in and smiling at him.

He leans in, breaking the distance between them, and instead of his normal, aggressive kiss, he kisses her sweetly. Pulling away so that there's barely an inch of distance between them, he whispers, "So yeah, I might be a bit tired of no strings attached."

"In other words, you have feelings for me," she grins at him, prodding gently.

"In other words, I might just have something like feelings for you, but don't tell anyone," he teases her, leaning in and kissing her again.

She's Dominique Weasley and surely she deserves the best. But sometimes, if the guy is good enough, she can settle for just one guy, and finally she'll be done playing.

VII._ScorpiusRose_

_she acts like summer and walks like rain, reminds me that there's time to change_ **  
>-drops of jupiter, train<strong>

Scorpius Malfoy doesn't do_ love_.

Of all the things Rose Weasley knows, she knows this best of all. She's glad, though, that he doesn't notice the way that her eyes always seem to land on him, or the way that her cheeks redden whenever he comes around.

It's foolish of her. First off, he wouldn't want to be with her _that way_- he's a Malfoy and she's a Weasley so things just don't work that way. But second, because there's a million _barriers_- between them, so he's bound to pick someone who's, well, let's just say_easier_. Even her cousin Dominique Weasley is easier than she is.

In fact, she just might be the hardest girl in the school for Scorpius Malfoy to pick.

The odds only intensify when their Charms teacher announces that Scorpius is failing Charms and therefore he needs someone to tutor him.

That someone being a certain _Rose Weasley_.

"I don't want to tutor you," she states dryly on the first day, picking up her wand and waving it over the beads, whispering "_Accio_" under her breath and watching as they zoom toward her.

"Oh, but you know you do want to," he replies with a twinkle in his eye. "You can't resist me."

She wants to protest, but she ends up blushing and instead decides it's best to keep her mouth shut at the moment. "Whatever you think, Scorpius. Now, back on track- do you know how to do this charm? _Accio_."

"Accio's the easiest charm in the book," Scorpius smiles a silky smile before whispering, "_Accio_," and watching as the beads all fly over to him, one by one.

Mouth agape, she stares at him. "How come you don't just do _that_ in _Charms_ class? Then maybe you wouldn't be failing, you idiot!"

"Probably because I don't hear half of her instructions," he replies with a bit of a laugh. "Her voice puts me to sleep most of the time. Any other spells that you think I should attempt before we can both just get the heck out of here? Then I can start 'improving' in class, and they'll credit my terrific tutor and give me high grades just for trying."

"So this was your plan all along then," she accuses with her brown dagger eyes. "You plotted this _all along_ to get higher grades in Charms."

"I don't know what you're complaining about," Scorpius raises his eyebrow. "You're getting most of the glory out of this anyway."

She rolls her eyes, moving her chair up a little closer to the table and giggling. "I suppose I have to say that I'm in on your evil plan, then."

"No," he shrugs his shoulders before moving close to the table. "But, you know, you could always allow me to initiate you in… other ways," he licks his lips suggestively, but then he doesn't even wait for her permission before he leans in and presses his lips to hers.

After giving him a minute or so of entertainment, she pulls away with a raise of her red eyebrow. "Scorpius, I'm terribly sorry for the_inconvenience, _but I don't do snogging without relationships. I don't do no-strings-attached. I believe in love, thank you very much, as if it's possible not to- my parents are far too lovey-dovey for me not to."

"I don't do love, Rose," he replies, looking at her. "My parents caused my family to completely fall apart. How can I even consider falling in love after seeing the calamity that my parents caused with their twisted ideas of love?"

"Obviously you haven't felt love yet, then," Rose replies coolly before offering him a small smile. "Loving someone is not something that you consider."

He insists that he is _not_ having this conversation with her, and instead turns the conversation back to which charms she wants him to experiment with. Wordless at his insensitivity, she pushes the list of required spells across the table to where he's sitting.

But as time passes by, she finds herself, much to her dismay, falling for said insensitive git.

And unlike Scorpius, when she says falling, she unfortunately means that she is falling in love. She knows what love is, too- it's not a choice, not something that she considers and thinks, 'huh, possibly I _could_ love him.' Instead, it's waking up one morning and having the intense desire to be around him. It's going to sleep at night and dreaming only of him. Love is wanting to be with him, despite the fact that she's figured out the majority of his bad qualities.

Love is the way she feels whenever he stares at her with this weird gleam in his eye like he does sometimes. But she knows that it definitely doesn't mean anything, because he obviously doesn't do love or anything of the like.

The tutoring sessions continue on, and despite the fact that Scorpius obviously considers himself an expert in the subject, she manages to teach him quite a few things.

But it's not until Scorpius aces his Charms exam that anything actually happens.

He rushes down to the Great Hall and, in front of the whole school, catches her in a tight hug. "Rose, I aced my Charms exam!"

"That's great," she replies simply, a smile in her eyes, and he leans down and once again presses his lips to hers.

Even though she's in love with him and all, she reminds herself of her own morals and values. Breaking away from him, she reminds him, "Scorpius, I don't do snogging without relationships, remember?"

He stares back at her, some unfathomable look in his eyes, and she runs upstairs to her dormitory, letting herself cry for the first time in a while, because crying isn't just for the weak anymore.

But when she awakens to find a bouquet of roses beside her bedside table, she figures out that's his way of saying 'I love you'.

Or it might've just been the inscription on the card.

VII. _AlbusAquarius_

_I admit that I'm fairly impressed, 'cause you're the best at blocking me out_  
><strong>- from end to end, relient k<strong>

She's always been an enigma to him.

Out of his family, Albus considers himself to be the most normal of them all. Despite his monumental achievement of being the first in his family to be sorted into Slytherin, he hasn't really done anything else with his time at Hogwarts, other than study hard. He doesn't prank anyone, but he makes plenty of friends anyway.

The people in his house and year fascinate him, particularly one girl. She's got black ringlets and blue-green eyes and she pretends as if she owns the world, as if _everyone_ in the world loves her or should love her. That girl entertains him like no one else in the entire school.

Her name is Aquarius but no one calls her that, instead, she forces them all to call her _Ria_. But he decides to do something about that, anyway, because he believes that her name is too pretty to be wasted.

"Hey, Aquarius," he greets her with a smile one day in the corridors.

Her eyes narrow. "It's Ria," she commands, before grinning over at him in her flirty sort of way. "But it's been a while anyway, Alb-ie? There are no good nicknames for your name," she announces, but flings her arms around him in a hug.

He hugs her back with a little amused smile. "Well, it's good to, um, see you, _Aquarius_."

"I swear, call me that one more time and I will cancel your ability to have children," she sends him a cute smirk. "The _hard_ way."

He turns red, glancing down at the table. "Uh. Okay, sorry, Ria."

"You know I'm only playing with you," she tells him in a silky voice before laughing at his expression. "Besides, Al- yes, there's a nickname! you _know_ I'm too sexy to cause pain… wait, no, I'm so sexy that I cause pain!" She nearly falls onto the floor with laughter.

"Uh, yeah, whatever you say," he replies, shooting her an _are-you-insane_ look.

"You know you love me," she informs him playfully before standing back up, moving so that her lips are barely an inch from his. "Do you mind?" she whispers, but she doesn't wait for a response before she leans in and kisses him.

Much to his intense surprise, she kisses gently, not roughly like he'd have thought. But he _knows_ her reputation around the school and he _knows_ that she's not exactly the best girl for him, nor the best influence, so he pulls away and blinks.

"Ria," he whispers, running a hand through his hair. "I don't do people snogging me and then going off to snog someone else."

"You mean you don't do easy people," she replies with a shrug. "It's okay, Al, I get it, I really do." She frowns at him, pinching the locket hung tightly around her neck with one green fingernail and one blue before she walks away.

He feels like he wants to call her back, but surely he's not brave enough.

He finds her in the common room one day, sprawled out across the couch, looking absolutely broken in a weird way. Cautiously, he asks her, "Something wrong, Ria?"

"No," she shoots up and plasters out a _really fake_ smile. "No. I'm just fine, why do you ask?"

He stares at her, challenging her to try and _lie_ to him. "Don't pretend like that. I don't do well with liars. What's wrong?"

Finally, she just sighs, tracing the pattern of the leaves on the couch. "I just…. I got in a fight with my brother, _again_, because he's a stubborn idiot as always, my parents are being complete and utter stuck-up pure-blood promoter gits as always, and… being with people is starting to get to me. There are only so many people you can… before…" She starts crying, which he knows is not usual in the least for her. Walking over to her, he takes her into his arms, hugging her softly against his chest. They stand like that for minutes, hours, just Aquarius and Albus and this is the way things _should_ be. Her tears soak into his robes but he doesn't really care.

"I'm sorry," he whispers into her hair. "But you've got people who love you and want to help you, don't you know-"

"Please," she scoffs with a scowl. "They only love who I'm supposed to be."

"You can't possibly believe that," he replies with a roll of his eyes. "Everyone loves you, Ria. If you want an example of an unpopular loser, well, then, look at _me_."

"Guys shouldn't be insecure," she laughs, but she grins at him nonetheless. "Al, you're not an unpopular loser. Everyone thinks that you're pretty darn funny, and cool in that weird way of yours. Plus, don't tell anyone that I told you this, but all the girls think you're sexy and entirely unattainable, which makes you an even bigger challenge to us."

"Sexy and unattainable, huh?" Albus whispers, and once again, the two of them share a kiss, but this time, he's the one who initiates it.

It's longer this time. Plus, this time, he doesn't pull away. He just revels in the fact that he's _Albus_ and he's actually kissing a girl who, though she hasn't said it (only implied it), thinks he's sexy and unattainable. This will be something to rub in James' face for the rest of his life.

Pulling away, she asks him with an amused smile, "What happened to not wanting to snog someone who would just go snog someone else?"

"Well," he winks at her, "of course, I don't know anything for sure, but I have a feeling that certain people won't be going and snogging other people."

"You never know, Al," she sings, "I'm uncontrollable, especially by you."

But he just laughs, pulling her down for another kiss, and they stay like that for minutes, hours, he doubts that either of them even_know_ how long.

She's always been an enigma to him, anyway.

IX. _MollyLysander_

_so tell me when you're gonna let me in- I'm getting tired and I need somewhere to begin_  
><strong>- somewhere only we know, keane<strong>

She's sprawled across the couch in the Gryffindor common room, notebook perched carefully upon her lap, scrawling words as fast as her quill will travel. Writing has long since become her only escape from her world of _magic_, but more importantly, the drama that her life has become ever since someone entered her life.

Speaking of which, that someone perches himself beside her. "Hey, Molls. What're you writing?'

"Not like it's any of your business," she replies, but she laughs and hands the notebook to him. "Take a look at it, will you? Tell me what you think."

He takes the notebook from her with a grin, reading the words that she's scrawled with a proud smile. Once he finishes, he grins up at her. "Molly, you're quite honestly one of the best writer's I've ever read. You have to write more."

Nodding, she takes the book back, blushing a little bit. If this were under normal circumstances, she might have guessed that he liked her. But this is hardly under normal circumstances, so she glances up at him, biting her lip. "How's Merilyn?"

His face lights up at even the _mention_ of his precious girlfriend, and he launches into a pre-rehearsed (almost) speech of how _well _Merilyn's doing, and how their relationship is all _peachy_ and perfect. She's glad, once again, that he has no idea of the amount of depth that Merilyn really has (none).

But she sighs, and though he doesn't notice, she turns back to her notebook and resumes writing.

Days pass and she's subject to day after day of watching the _perfect_ couple together. It's enough to make her want to vomit. Most of the time, she opts to stay in her room, hidden in her safehouse far away from the world that she's trying to escape. His undying devotion to his new girlfriend (who's probably only _using_ him) is so sickening that it makes her want to literally vomit.

Then one day, she arrives back in the common room to see him sitting there. Her eyes meet his, but then he makes a noise like he's choking and rushes off.

"Something wrong with him?" Molly asks someone nearby.

Rose, her cousin, walks up. "Molly," she tells her cousin, "Merilyn cheated on him, with some other idiot. You were right all along, does that make you happy?"

"No," she tells her cousin sharply. "Of course it doesn't, I don't want to see him unhappy…"

Rose just shakes her head and walks away, leaving Molly with only one choice- she _has_ to go talk to him, right that moment. So, with her red curls flying behind her, she runs upstairs to where she finds Lysander, leaning back against the wall that divides the boys' and girls' dorms.

"Ly," she whispers before sitting beside him.

"You… you were right," he chokes out with a frown. "Does that make you happy, Molly? She had _no depth, _and she cheated on me with some random Slytherin. I doubt she regrets it. But I thought we _had_ something, me and her."

"Well," she replies bitterly, "that's why you don't think the best of everyone, especially girls like Merilyn Goyle."

"I knew it," he says angrily. "I _knew_ you'd be like this-"

"Then why are you still here, still talking to me?" she asks, playing no games.

He just sighs before continuing. "I don't know. No matter how insensitive you can be at times, you're still Molly and you're _still_ my best friend."

"You're calling me insensitive?" Her jaw nearly drops and she hops to her feet in protest. "Lysander Scamander, you're the _definitio n_of insensitive."

"Well, I'm not the one telling my apparent_ best friend_ off for trusting his _girlfriend_, am I now? And I'm not the one that's happy because my best friend and his girlfriend broke up," he glares at her, angrily.

Biting back a remark about how she'll never break up with her 'girlfriend', she just blinks and sighs."And _I'm_ not the one who doesn't realise that said _best friend_ is in love with him, and has been for a while now. It's driving said best friend insane, and that's why she's happy- nothing against him or Merilyn, really."

Lysander just stares at her, his mouth wide open. "Are you serious?"

"Always," she promises before walking away.

Once she gets to her room, though, she pulls out a piece of parchment and scribbles a short but heartfelt apology letter, using her eloquent brain to think of the best way to tell him her emotions. Once that's over, she leaves it on his bed, hoping that he'll actually bother to respond. Probably, it'll end up burnt to ashes and tossed in the trashcan, but at least she tried, right?

But it's not until a few days later that she finds a note on the covers saying '_meet me under the tree underneath your dormitory.'_ At any other time, she would take the time to consider how creepy it is that he came in her dorm whilst she was asleep, but now, she decides to ignore his creepy factor and follow his instructions.

Once she sees him, perched underneath the tree, she almost cries then. But she keeps her head up because she has to be _strong_.

But he does the thing that she expects the least. Instead of yelling at her or even asking anything about _why_ she loves him, he just does the most simple but the most confusing thing- he leans in and kisses her.

Honestly, she does love him, so she kisses him back for a bit before she pulls away and stares at him, confused. "Honestly, Ly, you just broke up with Merilyn-"

"Sorry," he sighs, "I think that I love you too, is all. We don't have to give it a try now-"

"We can wait a bit," she replies, offering him a quick smile anyway. "I love you."

"I think I do too," he replies and he means it, she just _knows_.

_X. HugoGemini_

_I was thinking bout you, thinking bout me, thinking bout us, what we gonna be_  
><strong>- just a dream, nelly<strong>

Hugo first meets the girl through his sister's friend (future love interest), Scorpius Malfoy. He's standing at the platform, waiting to board the train for the first time, when Scorpius Malfoy waltzes up, all confident and stuff. By his side is a miniature version of him- in _girl_ form.

But there's something different about the girl. First off, unlike her brother, her hair is not the typical Malfoy-Greengrass platinum blonde. Instead, it falls in brown ringlets around her face. Her eyes are the same shade of piercing grey as her brother's, but they seem to have a softer edge to them. Placing a hand on her hip, she asks boldly, "Who are you?"

Glancing up, he realises that Scorpius is deep in conversation with Rose already and that means neither of them will spare them the awkwardness. He just blushes and stutters, "H-Hugo. Rose's younger brother, um, Hugo Weasley."

"Oh. Nice to meet you, I'm Gemini Malfoy," she says politely before breaking any sign that she might have manners. "You're a_Weasley_? You sure don't look like it."

"You don't look much like a Malfoy, either," he mutters, glancing down with a burning face.

"Very well then, we shall agree to disagree," she proclaims with a grin at him. "Want to claim a place on the train? If we hurry, they say we can get the best seats."

He just grins and follows her, wondering what else he can do.

From then on, they're basically best friends, though of course no one can believe it. The Malfoy-Weasley relationship was always going to be Scorpius and Rose, or even Scorpius and Dominique. No one had even considered the younger Malfoy and Weasley. But there they are, opposites like day and night but getting along like bread and butter.

She encourages him to _rebel_. She teaches him how to be mean. In return, he helps her to be a bit nicer to people and gain more friends than she ever had before. They just work that way, Hugo and Gemini.

One day during their fifth year, she invites him to go swimming. It's _May_ and hardly warm enough to wear short sleeves, so he just stares at her like she's crazy.

"Why," he asks in his typical calm tone, "would I go swimming in the month of _May_ when it's only just warm enough to wear short sleeves?"

"Because it's fun," she replies with an innocent shrug. "It's not that cold, honestly, Hugo. You'll see!"

He tells himself that she'll never actually get him to go, but that resolution is broken when he finds himself standing at the edge of the Black Lake in a pair of swim trunks and _no_ shirt. The cold breeze blows his bare chest, causing him to shiver. "Could I go back inside now, Gemi?"

"We only just got out here," Gemini protests, looking completely at ease. She dives into the water, executing a perfect dive and rising to the surface. With a bubbly grin, she tells him, "Come on in, the water's _fine_!"

The water, he soon deduces, is in fact, _not_ fine. It's as cold as ice in his opinion, and a bit murky, which will make the entire experience even worse because he can't see the bottom. But he pokes a toe in anyway, then a foot.

Growing impatient, Gemini clambers out of the water. "Just get _in_, Hugo, honestly. It'll warm up soon enough."

He just stares into the water, watching his reflection as it wiggles in the murky water. "No. It's so gross."

So she comes up behind him and shoves him _hard, _causing him to fall, screaming and flailing, into the water. She giggles and dives in behind him.

The water is _cold_, and it feels like ice against his skin. He nearly chokes underwater before he comes up for air with wide eyes. "Gemi! What the _heck_ was that?"

"Well, you're in now," she replies with a giggle.

"It's not nice to push people into the water," he reprimands her, but at the same time, adrenaline rushes through his veins. He's out in the Black Lake, where students are prohibited from swimming, and he's swimming in it anyway.

"Well," she whispers, swimming over to him, "since when have I ever done what it's nice to do?"

He glances over at her. Once again, he notes how pretty she is- with her wet brown curls falling into her eyes and that _smirk_ on her face, like she knows something he doesn't. With a shrug, he answers her, "Never," which is the truth.

She nods before grinning over at him. "Race you to that rock."

Without warning, she ducks under the water, taking off before he can even take in what's going on. But then he joins her, kicking off and swimming as fast as it's possible for him to go. He has gone swimming before, of course, at the local pool growing up- but it feels different with Gemini, somehow.

She resurfaces at her 'designated rock' first, grinning like some sort of animal. "Told you that I'd beat you."

"You didn't tell me anything," he protests, but he laughs anyway. "Have you ever done the Bubblehead spell? It makes it so you don't have to come up for air."

Her eyes sparkle. "Show me."

As always, he shows her how to do the spell, and in unison, they recite it before going underwater. He grins at her, and she grins back. Drifting closer, she invades his bubble so that both of their heads are in one bubble.

"What are you _doing_?" he asks, because this defies all laws of the charm.

"This," she replies simply, leaning in and kissing him quickly on the lips. It's an underwater kiss, perfectly romantic for both of them.

He laughs and tells her, "Gemi, do I have to show you how to properly kiss too?"

As always, it ends up in a battle of proving themselves- but for once, both of them are the victors.

XI. _LucyLorcan_

_if I lay here, if I just lay here, would you lie with me and just forget the world_?  
><strong>- chasing cars, snow patrol<strong>

She's sitting by the edge of the creek that she'd discovered a while ago in her exploration of the Hogwarts grounds. Her bare feet dangle just above the edge of the water, and she leans back, just allowing herself to _dream_ while she has the chance.

That is, until the cracking of branches announces the arrival of someone else. Turning quickly, she sees Lorcan Scamander, staring at her with an amused smile. "Lucy."

"Lorcan," she jumps quickly to her feet, accidentally stepping on a rock but smiling anyway. "Hey. How did you find this place?"

"I heard the rushing of water and went to investigate," Lorcan shrugs. "We're having a bit of a drought lately; I thought we could use all the water that we could get…"

"So you're going to drain the creek?" Lucy protests, stepping in front of him as if to block him from getting to the water. "The water's dirty. Really, Lorcan, you don't want this water-"

He interrupts her, folding his arms across his chest. "Lucy, calm down. You can filter it. _Aquafission_," he mutters, waving his wand, and the perfectly clean water falls into the bucket in Lorcan's arms.

"But, really, Lor," she bites her lip, hoping that she won't cry over something stupid like this, and in front of _him_, too. "Don't drain _all_ of the water. I really like this creek. It gives me somewhere to think." She breathes in deeply, thinking reasonably- he wouldn't do something like that, would he?

"Would you die of thirst for this creek?" he asks abruptly.

"Lor…" she trails off. "Just come sit down and think. At the end of the day, see if you still want to drain this creek."

Nodding, he takes the place beside her. Kicking off his shoes, he dangles his toes over the water with a bit of a smile."You're that desperate to preserve this creek?"

"What do you mean?" she asks, her brow creasing a tiny bit.

"You're so desperate to preserve the creek that you'll willingly spend time with me so that I won't drain it," he blinks, staring at her curiously. "Do you and this creek have some sort of special connection?"

"No," Lucy bursts out laughing. "Come on, Lor, I'm not that kind of freak that believes I have a connection with nature. I might be a dreamer, but I don't go _that_ far. And I honestly don't mind spending time with you."

He just raises his eyebrow at her. "Then what do you dream about?" A subtle blush colours his cheeks, but Lucy doesn't comment.

Grinning over at him, she launches into her explanation. "I dream about Narnia."

"Hold up," Lorcan holds out a hand. "_Narnia_? As in those Muggle books that your Aunt Fleur gave Victoire for her birthday a while ago?"

"Yes," Lucy gushes, a beam colouring _her_ face. "Well, you see, they're not _only_ books. There's also a real Narnia, one that's the same as the one that CS Lewis painted in the books, but, well, different. Edmund is there, and Lucy is too, and…"

He cuts her off with a bit of a laugh. "Narnia doesn't exist, Lucy."

"It does too, I've _been_ there," she informs him. "Look, Lorcan, I'm telling you the truth. Whether you choose to believe me or not is_your_ choice."

"And what," he chuckles lightly, "this creek is your transportation to Narnia?"

"No," she says, her voice falling as she peers into the creek. "I'll never go back to Narnia. I've been one too many times already and I'm getting too old. This creek is my only reminder of Narnia, though- it looks like the one that I used to sit by whenever everything was getting too much."

He glances into the stream, and then looks back up at her, that cynical glint in his eyes. She gets how hard it must be for him to believe- he's spent his whole life basing things on _reason_ and _logical thinking_, the way she often did before she discovered Narnia and began to believe. But he looks back up at her, some sort of unrecognizable emotion in his grey eyes. "I believe you."

"Wait, what?" her voice squeaks as she replies. "I mean, I didn't think that you would… believe me, I mean. It doesn't make any sense…"

"But you're you, Lucy," he replies with a smile at her. "You're Lucy. You're sweet and nice to me when I don't deserve it. You don't lie to anyone- _ever_- and you're a dreamer, but you know logic too. You're a Ravenclaw who knows how to _believe_ and _trust_, which is more than I can say for most of them. You might be a bit naïve, stubborn, and sometimes annoying, but you're still _Lucy_ and I trust you more than most people."

"Well," she says, a small smile spreading across her face, "thank you, I suppose."

"You're welcome, I suppose," he mimics her with a grin. "You know, you're not like any Weasley I've ever talked to before."

"You've known us all since forever, Lor," Lucy smirks at him, reminiscent of Dominique's typical smirk. "It's not like this is the first time that you've ever talked to me or anything, and you're just _now_ mentioning this?"

"It's the first time that it's ever really hit me," he shrugs. "All of the other Weasleys are loud, and most of them- _James_- have no imagination or no need for breaking the boundaries. They stay inside their little boxes."

"But I push the boundaries, then?" Lucy giggles. "I should've been a Slytherin."

"No, you're too sweet," he retorts, leaning in so that he's close enough that his breath mingles with hers before he breaks the distance and kisses her.

It's a short, sweet kiss, but it still feels just so _right. _As he pulls away, she reaches over and intertwines her hand with his. "Still want to drain the creek, Lor?"

"No," he replies with a smile. "I think I'll die of dehydration first."

XII. _LilyAlbert_

_shine your light so all can see it; lift it up cause the whole world needs it_  
><strong>- sms (shine), david crowder band<strong>

She meets him at the first cross-country match.

He's looking nervous, and she realises later that this is no big feat- he _always_ looks nervous. But she walks up to him nonetheless, being the girl that she is, and sticks out her hand. "I'm Lily. Lily Potter. And _you_ are?"

"Albert Rosier," he stutters, staring at her. "What do you want?"

"Only to talk to you," she replies in a _fake_ sweet tone. "I mean, I don't bite- only some of the time, like when I was little."

He just stares at her, obviously confused. She grins at him and skips away, not really caring what he thinks.

Things change, they get older, and during their first year of Hogwarts, they make up the two most surprising sortings of their year. Lily Luna _Potter_ is sorted into Slytherin and Albert _Rosier_ is sorted into Hufflepuff.

"Hufflepuff," Lily hears someone beside her say. "How could a _Death Eater's son_ be a Hufflepuff?"

Grinning widely, she turns to the person and says, "The same way that _Harry Potter's daughter_ could be a Slytherin. Not everything is about your parentage, you know. Though of course, we _are_ Slytherins, so I suppose it is all about parentage. Way to reinforce the stereotype."

The guy stares at her as if she's insane- honestly, an eleven year old speaking that way? But she just beams even wider and continues on with life.

It's not until third year that the weirdness really starts. She is walking down the corridor, bored to death, and she knows it's after hours, but she's a _Slytherin_ and she doesn't really care about getting in trouble. But that's when she comes across a shiny, silvery trashcan. For some reason, she feels the urge to go kick it.

So she does just that.

Suddenly, the trashcan changes, shortens, becomes thinner. Then, with a pop, a thirteen-year-old boy lands in front of her, not looking happy at all.

"Lily," he protests, "why did you _kick_ me? Even with the metal covering, it still doesn't feel that good."

Screaming, she jumps about a mile. "What the- what the freak, Albert? You were a trashcan and… _why_ were you a trashcan?" Her hand, clutching her wand, trembles a bit.

"My Animagus is a trashcan," he mumbles, looking very embarrassed.

"Your Animagus is a… hold up, a trashcan isn't an animal!" Lily demands.

"I know," he blushes. "I mean, um, I've always been able to transform into a trashcan."

"Why?" She raises an eyebrow. "Because you're _useful_, but you do all the dirty work and no one appreciates you?" She means it sarcastically but it comes out sounding right, somehow.

"Yes," he replies, startled. "At… at least, that's what the headmistress said."

She just laughs, nods, promises not to tell anyone, and skips away, seeming happier than she has in a while- though she doesn't know why, really. She doesn't question it because really, they're living in a world of _magic_, and anything is possible there.

But it's not until fifth year that the trashcan really becomes her solace. She starts to get bullied because she's a _Potter_, she's in Slytherin, and she's a contradiction to the perfect status quo that the students of Hogwarts have perfected over the past few years. It was bound to happen sometime, she believes, so she takes it like the Slytherin she is and shoots back cold comments and hot remarks. But it still gets to her, because contrary to popular belief, Lily Potter has a _heart_.

In the corridor one day, she comes across a trashcan. Though it looks to be perfectly ordinary, she knows exactly who it is, and leans up against it. "Hey, there, Albert."

There's no voice that comes from the trashcan, but Lily takes the rumble of satisfaction from within the trashcan as a confirmation that it's Albert. With a sigh, she begins. "So, you know, I'm a Slytherin, and I'm a Potter. But the people in my house- well, they don't like that. Do you ever get that, being a Rosier and in Hufflepuff?"

And from there, she continues. It all spills out, everything she's been feeling over the past few days. But then light spills over the hall. She realizes that a Prefect is probably on hallway patrol.

"Tell no one," she whispers to the trashcan before dashing away, back to the cold refuge of the Slytherin Tower.

And from then on, it becomes their little secret. Whether he's in trashcan form or not, he's always there for his cross-country teammate to rant to. Sometimes she'll cry, and sometimes he'll morph back to his human form and give her a big hug.

One day, she decides that the awkwardness that exists sometimes is getting too much to bear. She's sort of selfish and she wants their relationship to be _perfect_. So, with a frown, she demands, "Albert Rosier, do you have a crush on me?"

His face turns from its usual paleness to a shade of tomato red. To avoid answering the question, he morphs back into the form of a trashcan.

Sighing, she quickly bangs on the cold metal before coming up with a devious plan. With a bit of a smirk on her face, she reminds him, "Albert, you do remember that I can't kiss you if you're in the form of a trashcan? Well, I can, but it'll be a bit weird…"

Quickly, the trashcan becomes a boy once again. Not one to break her words, Lily leans in and kisses him with a big smile upon her face. It's definitely the beginning of something, there.

Maybe they work together, the little ball of fire and the quiet, bashful Hufflepuff boy.

Or maybe Lily's always been one to find usefulness in trashcans.

She falls asleep with her head against a trashcan that night, and the rumours start up again but she doesn't really care this time.

She has Albert, who's safe, sweet, and will probably _never_ hurt her, the reliable trashcan.

**A/N: I'd just like to give a sweet little speech thing here.**

**I'm posting this mainly because I leave tomorrow, and therefore, this is my last fic that will be posted in China, ever. I'm leaving for America and I'm scared, but my problems are the least of my concern.**

**This is in loving memory of _Alex_- you'll always be remembered.**

**This is for my sisters at the NextGen Fanatics. I call the role of the middle sister. ;)**

**Because I know that you all have been having a hard time lately and we need some serious cheering up. I love you guys _so_ much. You don't even know. And I'd just like to let you know that you're the most beautiful people I've ever met and I'm always there if you need me.**

**Love you guys.**

**If you had the perseverance to read this, at least leave a review, please?**


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